Adjure Thee
by Laryna6
Summary: With a plague of demonic possession overrunning the countryside, Professor Frankenstein summons a demon to test countermeasures. Unfortunately, the demon he gets is more powerful than expected. And can't find his way back to Hell, so Frankenstein is stuck with him. It's not as though he can just let a fallen angel wander around loose, tempting people with that pretty face of his.
1. Chapter 1

_I wanted this to be a larger, more elaborate 'verse that slowly revealed that yes, it was nobles all along, just viewed through the lens of Christian demonization of beings once worshipped as gods and the sale of souls instead of vampire mythos. Problem is, of course, that's a setting, but what should be the plot? A research theologian and the Noblesse: together, they fight crime? Or the noble criminals, rather._

 _And Frankenstein dealing with Rai being Rai… Ok, that could definitely be turned into a plot-plot, if I ever have the energy and inspiration or someone wants the bunny._

 _I'm posting this as a oneshot, but maybe, one day… can't promise anything, though._

* * *

The demon spoke in tongues, although it seemed to understood what he said perfectly well.

Throwing holy water on it only produced a mild look of distress as it examined the darker area of its clothing. Holy oil had the same result, only it looked at him instead, befuddled and almost hurt.

Its clothing dried instantly as he watched.

Well. That wasn't a good sign. Developing countermeasures against the plague of demonic possession ravaging the countryside was going to be harder than he'd thought.

Keeping his expression hard, he knew that he needed to think before testing other methods, and he didn't want this creature he'd summoned to linger in the human world any longer than necessary. Ah yes. "Begone from whence you came," Frankenstein said, dismissing the demon deliberately dismissively.

It stared at him with red eyes, as though waiting for something.

"Shoo," Frankenstein prompted.

Nodding, it turned its head back and forth as though looking for something, then its eyes fixed on a point beyond Frankenstein.

He turned to look: there was nothing there, the door was shut.

When he heard the demon take a step, he turned around, and Frankenstein's blood ran cold when he saw it walk forward.

 _Over the lines of the summoning circle._

"Back!" he ordered.

It paused, blinked at him and looked down at the ground. It stepped back carefully, avoiding the lines.

At least that was something, even if it didn't seem to have any difficulty breaching the pentagram… "How were you able to do that?" he demanded. Where was the flaw in his reproduction of the sorcerers' diagrams?

The demon looked down at its feet and frowned. Carefully lifting one, it took a small step, too small to leave the circle.

" _No,_ not how did you _walk_ , how did you escape the circle?"

It looked up at him, puzzled. Back to its feet, then up at him again.

"You shouldn't be able to just walk over the pentagram," he said, pointing at it. It was a model of precision (he wasn't going to risk his soul to chance – testing the summoning method was risky enough), with the proper angles and names… Wait. "Were you never summoned and bound by Solomon?" he asked.

The demon shook its head.

Frankenstein scowled at himself. Well, that was fantastic. He hadn't wanted to use one of the names he knew, because the demon might escape and inform the sorcerers, but he shouldn't have left what kind of devil he summoned to chance.

Cadis Etrama di Raizel: that unearthly beauty, he must have gotten a fallen angel. A fallen angel should be _more_ vulnerable to the Enochian he'd used as backup, but he doubted there was much experimentation in this field. Those who made mistakes were dragged down to Hell.

Was that about to be his fate?

"Return to hell, devil," he ordered it again, "Without stepping over the lines of the pentagram."

It nodded, then vanished.

Well, that was a relief, for the three seconds before Frankenstein heard the door open. "What are you doing?" He added quickly, "No, I don't mean opening the door!"

"Returning to Lukedonia," said the devil with a little hesitation, as though it hadn't been pretending ignorance of Latin but was trying to remember a mostly-forgotten language.. Then it frowned pensively. "But I do not know the way."

Frankenstein blinked. Lukedonia? The kingdom of Lucifer, obviously. That must be the demons' word for Hell. "Have you never been to the human world before?"

"I was sent here once by the Lord."

… _That_ long ago? "And I gather you're not one of the demons that can teach geography."

The fallen angel sighed, and he could almost think it was apologetic.

"I can't have you wandering around the countryside tempting serfs." Not a fallen angel with this degree of unearthly beauty. Not when the normal methods of repelling demons did absolutely nothing. "If I had your true name, perhaps…"

"Cadis Etrama di Raizel."

"Your _true_ name."

That earned him another silent look for a few seconds. "It is a title, but it is also my name," the devil told him.

"Once, perhaps." Shouldn't it have had its heavenly name and title stripped from it?

"I have no other name," it claimed, pretending innocent confusion behind its stoic mask.

"I'm sure," Frankenstein said. There seemed to be no profit in arguing with it. "What am I going to do with you?" he wondered. "Go inside the pentagram and stay there," he ordered it, not expecting it to work but because if it would have worked and he didn't even try it then he would have felt like a fool when he realized.

It nodded and walked into the pentagram again.

What? Frankenstein rubbed at his eyes. Did it have to obey him because he had summoned it? Perhaps it had given him its true name, and it simply couldn't obey orders if it didn't know how. "How did you return home before?"

The devil sighed, perhaps embarrassed. "The Lord sent Gejutel to retrieve me."

That was an idea! "If an angel could be summoned to return the demons to hell… But they were called here by human greed." If humans let evil into their hearts, God could do nothing – such was free will. But the innocents who suffered helplessly for the sins of others…

"The Lord does not permit nobles to interfere in the affairs of humans."

"And yet they do." The dukes and princes of hell. Disobeying the Lord was to be expected of demons, Frankenstein thought, glaring at Raizel. "They make contracts, signed in blood, and give the sorcerers the ability to summon demons to possess the innocent, forcing them to do their bidding." Or run amuck, full of demonic madness, nothing but the will to harm others and do evil.

The fallen angel frowned solemnly. If it were not for the demonic red eyes, he could almost be taken for virtuous, with his beauty and reserve.

"Do you still have your wings?" Frankenstein wondered idly.

Raizel nodded.

"Show them to me," he ordered him.

Raizel looked up at the ceiling, then at the walls to either side. "They will not fit."

That was a problem… Oh, why not. The pentagram was useless anyway. "Follow me outdoors," Frankenstein told him, striding to the door and opening it himself this time. "Perhaps the stars will help you find your way."

When they were outside, Frankenstein folded his arms. Raizel stepped into the center of the clearing, near the gravestones, and Frankenstein opened his mouth to tell him to stop, not to desecrate the graves of the unhallowed dead (possessed as they were, it was too much of a risk to give them proper burial – what if that endangered the souls of the others in the churchyard?), but had to brace himself, raising an arm to shield his face, when blood poured up out of those graves, filling the air around him before gathering around Raizel, a sphere that then snapped out from him, taking the shape of great wings forged of blood and fire.

Perhaps he might have been overwhelmed by awe or fear, but the emotion that consumed him, that drove him forward to seize him by the shoulders – and it was all he could do not to grab that white throat in his hands and _wring_ that neck – was rage. "How _dare_ you," he spat, glaring into red that burned like coals. _Stolen_ red. "Have they not been profaned enough!"

"My power is over blood unjustly shed." Raizel said, but the wings flapped once, flaring around them, and fell apart into glowing drops that slowly fell from the heavens, or was it flowed, into those well-marked graves.

"There's _plenty_ of that here," Frankenstein growled, not even noticing how Raizel's eyes narrowed at those words. "The churchyards wouldn't take them! After everything they suffered, to lie in unhallowed ground like the damned? When none of what happened to them was their fault! They didn't summon demons into themselves, they didn't take their _own_ lives, now did they? No! Their lives and souls – their very _wills_ – were stolen from them! Forced to obey demonic masters, and worse than demonic! Humans not just selling their souls but betraying their own kind for the power _you_ possess! The temptations you dangled in front of them! And what are we to do to fight back?" he demanded.

And wondered who he questioned: the devil or himself?

Summon a devil for research, perhaps samples, nothing more – or so he had told himself. But now, seeing the power Raizel possessed, the power to summon the blood of their victims, perhaps even to use it against them?

Let them _choke_ on it, on the evil they had wrought. Let the innocent dead have their vengeance, and hope it let them rest easier until the end of days.

Eyes flying open in realization, he shoved Raizel back, or was he the one that retreated, that ran away? He forced himself to stop before he entered the house, gripping his forearms, feeling the creases in the cloth and remembering the unnaturally fine fabric of that devil's clothing. "Get thee behind me, temptation," he said, voice hoarse, and only then realized that he had turned his back on the devil.

"No." How could he even contemplate such a thing? What profit a man to gain justice should sell his own soul… How could it be anything but an illusion? Would he let that evil infest his spirit? The very evil that killed them? Would he too end up watching them die and _laughing?_ He shuddered, letting his hands rise to cover his face, bowing his head in shame.

Was that why he could not command Raizel to go? Because the evil within every human, the desire for ease, wanted the devil to stay? Wanted to sell his soul and wreak vengeance upon the sorcerers instead of justice? The thought filled him with rage yet again, this time at himself and his own weakness. "No," he said again, this time with force. "No!" he declared, whirling on the devil. "Stay here and wait to your heart's content! I will _not_ yield! I will show you that humans are not weak!"

Breathing harshly, he waited, hands beginning to curl into fists, but the fallen angel just stood there stoically and watched him as he glared at it. He expected a laugh, contempt, but its red eyes were unreadable.

The silence stretched on. "Well?" he demanded.

The devil nodded regally.

"Good," he snapped. "Go inside."

He would figure out what to do with it in the morning.

* * *

"The first order of business is to do something about how you look. I can't have people seeing you like this." Frankenstein looked the black-clad demon up and down, wondering where to start. "Can you do something about the eyes?"

He shook his head.

Well, so much for that. "A blindfold, then." It would hide some of that bewitching face.

Demonic eyes blinked at him, for a moment seeming full of strangely innocent alarm.

"What?"

"I… will not be able to look out the window."

No, it wasn't Frankenstein's imagination. He was certain he heard the demon pause, heard the telltale signs of unhappiness or outright distress in his voice at the thought. He smirked, and saw it when Raizel noticed the expression, the stoic mask slamming down, but Raizel's feelings were betrayed by the slight slump of his shoulders at the thought of being deprived… of a view out the window?

It seemed such a small, harmless thing… Wait. "What will happen if you are allowed to look out the window? Will you curse anyone? Learn their sins or weaknesses to use to tempt them? Draw them into my house to work your wiles on them?"

"I will see things. Precious things."

"Like what?"

"Clouds. Trees." Rai met Frankenstein's skeptical gaze for long seconds before sighing. " I do not know what else is here."

"Not if you haven't been to the human world since the Fall…" Suddenly, Frankenstein felt small and mean. He shouldn't wish unhappiness on anyone, shouldn't give an order for no purpose other than to hurt someone. Yet this was a fallen angel. Yet if he hadn't been to Earth since before he fell…

Then what sin had he committed to fall? Yet suddenly Frankenstein felt tired. He didn't want to know. "Alright. I won't blind you, but I had better not catch you giving anyone the evil eye. So then how am I supposed to disguise your presence? You're too eye-catching."

A blink, and Raizel seemed totally unremarkable. Frankenstein had to draw on the perceptions he'd gained through his alchemy to see through the… not an illusion, but a feeling. Disinterest, perhaps? That was it! Raizel was no longer tempting. "Good," he said. "Refrain from seducing the innocent, and we won't have any problems as long as you don't harm them in any other ways." He nodded, that settled. "What do you require in the way of room and board?"

The devil looked at him, waiting for clarification.

"Do you need anything special to eat or drink? Will a cot suffice for your bed?"

"I do not need to eat. Nor do I sleep."

"Well. How fortunate for you." He should have expected that, from a fallen angel. If they didn't require earthly food, then to eat at all would be gluttony. Then there was sloth. Just how dangerous would an actual devil's idle hands be? "I'll have to draw up a list of chores."

* * *

His student came running up to hide behind him, putting him between the child and Raizel. "Professor, is he a, a demon!"

"What?" Frankenstein said distractedly, looking up from the most recent journal. "Oh, you mean Raizel? Yes. He has no idea how to tempt people, but I couldn't let him wander off and get some experience. As long as he's staying here, I'm making him do chores."

Raizel sighed, either at the indignity or because he would love to dispute Frankenstein's version of events, but was too polite. The fallen angel continued elegantly folding the laundry.

"You mean you've managed to imprison a demon and make him do your bidding without selling your soul, Professor?"

"Oh, imprisoning one of the demons isn't that difficult – I'll teach you how to make the chains when you're a little older. Powering them is rather draining. I summoned Raizel when I was studying how the sorcerers gained their power, and he had no idea how to get himself back to hell. Exorcisms don't seem to work on him, so he's stuck here for now." Frankenstein frowned pensively at Raizel. "I suppose I could use him to help you practice resisting a demon's temptation, so we don't need to wait until I capture another test subject." Nodding, he ordered Raizel to, "Drop that glamorie of yours."

Frankenstein had spent decades fighting demons by now. He was used to the effect they had on his mind and well-practiced at combating it, but Raizel was still something special. He was quite certain that Raizel was more powerful than the demons he had fought.

Tesamu was staring at Raizel open-mouthed before he pulled himself together enough to swallow. He clung tighter to Frankenstein, and likely would have hid behind him if he hadn't already.

That was far too mild a reaction to Raizel, whose beauty had stopped the entirety of the capital's busiest street in their tracks when Frankenstein wanted a baseline reaction to his aura of temptation. " _You've seen demons before_ ," Frankenstein knew, and wished he was more surprised. He'd already begun to suspect the true nature of those who offered themselves as his allies, for the good of humanity.

"Professor, what should I do if he attacks me or tries to tempt me?" Tesamu asked.

"Come to me, or threaten to take away his mulled cider. He doesn't need to eat, but he has quite the sweet tooth and taste for hot drinks." Including soups. Frankenstein had taught him to cook, but left to his own devices he would make nothing else. "I managed to summon a demon with absolutely no job experience. He's fairly harmless unless he thinks another demon is attempting to usurp his prerogatives."

"What do you mean, Professor?"

"When one of the test subjects got loose he killed them rather quickly." They'd torn open a door and smashed Frankenstein's desk, trying to escape while he was out of the house dealing with another case of possession. Raizel had noticed how much it angered Frankenstein when someone broke his things.

"But… why do you let him hide what he is?"

"If he doesn't use his glamorie to make people ignore him, they'll start bringing him small gifts and tribute, like he's a pagan deity. I won't have lovestruck teenagers hiding in my bushes hoping to catch a glimpse of him, it's too dangerous." What if his home was attacked again?

* * *

"Professor, he's tempting me!"

"Is he actually taking action to tempt you, or just being tempting?"

His student blushed.

"You'll need the practice resisting temptation if you hope to fight demons, Tesamu." Like right now, Frankenstein was very glad he had practice resisting the temptation to ruffle hair.

* * *

Looking for Tesamu to tell him to wash up, Raizel was already setting the table for dinner, Frankenstein found him with a stepladder, trying to balance a bucket over Raizel's door. "Honestly." Shaking his head, he took the bucket from his apprentice's hands. "Holy water doesn't work on him no matter the quantity. And it doesn't injure or have significant effects on other demons, other than a temporary distraction." What he didn't say was that when he'd tested holy water and holy oil on captured demons while they were unconscious, there was no reaction whatsoever. It didn't take much questioning for one of them to laugh in his face and say that they had been faking, to mock the superstitious humans. "What if the water got into something and made it mildew?"

Putting the bucket on an end table, he bent down closer to the child's eye level. "What is this all about?"

He flushed, embarrassed but also a bit angry. "He's a demon!"

Frankenstein frowned. "Tesamu, I won't have you around the prisoners if you plan to torment them just for the sake of tormenting them. It would imperil your soul. Raizel might be incompetent at temptation, but mercy is a virtue and wrath is a sin – the prisoners would have the skill to make use of that chink in your armor." The thought of a demon getting loose with a child, a hostage, right there made his blood run cold.

"Aren't I supposed to learn how to fight demons?"

' _Not_ Raizel,' was Frankenstein's first thought, as though it should have been obvious that Raizel was in his own category, might be a demon but wasn't one of the demons they fought.

That was dangerous, he thought, sighing. To get attached to his tempter. "I feel somewhat responsible for him, because I'm the reason he's stranded in the human world and can't go home. I might make him earn his keep, but he's more of a guest than a servant or a prisoner. And," he added, quietly. "He's much too strong. I may be able to reliably subdue minor demons, but Raizel is a fallen angel of no small power. Some of the demons Solomon subdued were once pagan gods – Raizel often seems like a breed apart from the demons I've learned how to fight. Don't provoke him, Tesamu. Don't mistake passivity or obedience for weakness – angels were created to serve." So Raizel's compliant nature didn't mean what it would mean in a human. "He has dominion over blood unjustly shed – think of how much of _that_ there is in this sinful world. Attacking someone who has done you no harm is an unjust act – I suspect that if you were able to find a way to injure Raizel, you would only make him more powerful. Demons are not to be trifled with," he said, meeting Tesamu's eyes sternly. "It's because I attempted a random demon-summoning ritual just to obtain data that a devil as powerful as Raizel ended up in the human world. I can't put innocent people in danger because of my lapse in judgment. If you keep provoking Raizel, I would have to send you away for your own safety."

There was a look of horror in the child's eyes. "I'll be good, don't send me away! I'm learning so much, Professor, and…"

Frankenstein held up a hand. "It's alright, Tesamu. Fortunately, Raizel is a passive creature, so I doubt you've managed to offend him enough for him to take action. Especially when he knows I will not forgive him for attacking a human. I may not be able to kill him, but part of the reason I've made him comfortable here is so that he'll be reluctant to destroy or disrupt the household." And be left wandering aimlessly through the human world, with no idea how to procure tea and honey.

'It's all under control,' he wanted to say, to reassure the child, but even if the situation was stable enough for _him_ to feel safe enough, was it really alright to risk a child in a house with a demon?

Perhaps he should send Tesamu away. A household with both a demon and a spy… was he really so arrogant as to think he had everything under control, when he lived here with two effective enemy agents that might act at any time?


	2. Chapter 2

_Giftfic for an-earl – I tried to include more Tesamu._

 _I like the idea that Frankenstein wasn't always that good at social._

* * *

Besides a reasonable hatred of demons, Frankenstein knew that Tesamu had another reason to loathe Raizel's presence. It would make it difficult for Tesamu to obey whatever orders he'd been given. Since the first time Raizel dealt with an escapee, the demons who woke up in captivity trembled in fear instead of defying him. No demon would come anywhere near the fallen angel of their own volition. It wasn't unusual for a demon to be capable of sensing evil intent, but power over blood unjustly shed – could someone in the employ of Tesamu's masters come anywhere near Raizel without him knowing?

That was the other reason Frankenstein knew – he had seen Raizel watching the boy, sorrow in his eyes, and asked him suspiciously why he was staring at Frankenstein's apprentice. Raizel was reluctant to speak, but he'd pried the words out of him.

Tesamu was a genius, and even Raizel admitted that his passion for knowledge and desire to fight the demons and protect humanity were true. He might not know that those who arranged for him to end up with Frankenstein were allied with the demons, those who had violated the Lord's laws.

Or they might have his family hostage.

At least Tesamu was safe here – Raizel's presence protected Frankenstein's home and the whole village. No one here had been touched since Frankenstein summoned him – it left him free to range further afield, hunting the demons, the sorcerers and their possessed victims.

For the sake of Tesamu's safety, he couldn't send him away. What would they do to him if he failed them? But he couldn't stay in this limbo.

The following morning, as Raizel cleared the breakfast dishes, Frankenstein told him, "Leave them for a moment, and sit down."

Raizel nodded and complied, looking at him expectantly. Raizel did seem to enjoy cleaning, cooking, sewing, everything constructive Frankenstein gave him to do. The fallen angel still trusted that Frankenstein wouldn't deny him the chance to tidy up without good reason. Dirty dishes weren't elegant.

"Tesamu… do I need to go on a rescue mission?"

"What do you mean, professor?"

"Betrayal is a sin, Tesamu."

The child flinched, and Frankenstein winced, wishing he'd spoken with more thought to the child's feelings than teaching him a valuable lesson. "The people who sent you here are allies of the demons. If you didn't know that, then you have not betrayed humanity."

"Allies of the demons?"

Frankenstein nodded. "Why did you think I denied them my work? I would love for my secrets to become common knowledge – but I won't let them fall into the hands of power-hungry sorcerers and demons who will use them to become more powerful and deny them to everyone else."

"Did _he_ tell you that?" Tesamu asked, looking at Frankenstein with worry.

"I wouldn't think badly of a human on any demon's say-so."

Tesamu glared venomously at Raizel. "Professor… _they_ already say that you are a sorcerer yourself. Keeping a demon servant like this? He's obviously no human! The village thinks that he's an elf-lord, but they're fallen angels too, aren't they?"

Frankenstein sighed. "I don't know what else to do with him, Tesamu. What am I going to do with you?" he asked the child. "I don't know if it's safe to let you leave here. Do you have a family that I can rescue?"

"I wasn't lying about the demons. Not about that."

"Then…" Frankenstein looked at him with sorrow.

"I… suspected. That it was so convenient for them." Tesamu's village was destroyed by demons – had the Union made a show of 'rescuing' him? "You… you are no sorcerer, even if _he_ stares at you whenever your back is turned."

"He stares at me to my face as well." Raizel had no subtlety, once you could see past his reserve. "I know he wants my soul, Tesamu. But better he's after mine than anyone else's."

"You can't…! You're important, professor. Who could stop them, except you?"

"Everyone, or so I hope. Spreading the elixir of immortality would keep a great many souls out of their claws." The village – and Tesamu – had already taken it, but outside the region of Raizel's protection, those who drank of it… 'disappeared.'

"I'm touched that you think I'm so important, Tesamu…"

"You are, or he wouldn't be staying her posing as a servant for a chance at you!"

"Are you 'posing' as my apprentice, Tesamu, or is that what you want to be?"

"Yes!" he said desperately. "I want to heal people, and protect them from the demons and those liars!"

A hatred of liars, when Tesamu had lied to Frankenstein… he didn't want the boy to hate himself. "I have been thinking of holding classes. Teaching others to at least make the medicine and giving them the ability to fight those creatures." He hadn't put greater strength in the standard elixir of life – too much potential for abuse. But then, if everyone had it? He should offer that to the village. Not let them stay dependent on him and Raizel. It would also make their lives much easier.

The town. At this point it was a town. He was still thinking of it as the village it was decades ago. Well, two decades, but still. Decades. It was a reminder of how long he'd been fighting.

"Would you help me with the classes, Tesamu? I've learned some of how to teach others my inventions from teaching you, but I could use the benefit of your experience learning these things from someone else."

Relief, and Frankenstein realized he'd made Tesamu think Frankenstein wanted to replace him, or make him one among many, worth no more than the others to him. "You'll still be my apprentice, Tesamu. I don't blame you for being taken in by them – I was." Briefly, once upon a time. Raizel had sensed the Union scum's demon contract, and Frankenstein had followed him to their meeting. "If you know the signs and how they operate, you're less likely to be taken in again – and you are a very smart boy. I can't invent everything myself," he said, and smiled for him.

Maybe he wasn't entirely incompetent at dealing with children? Although he clearly needed a lot more practice before he would be satisfied.

* * *

Raizel did test his resolve as well as his patience. His beauty was deadly enough, but that strange sense of innocence in him. How seriously he took any task he was given, how he enjoyed picking out what he would wear the next day, after Frankenstein gave him two more sets of clothes. And another every year after that, as though Raizel was a servant. Because he was assisting him like a servant, and you owed servants certain rights, demon or no. His patience, his quiet obedience, how he would do his best to do a good job, once the job was explained to him with all the details needed by a being who had never seen a pump before.

He wasn't stupid, just not in the habit of thinking. But when he didn't need to eat, when he could conjure clothing, what gave him the need to think? No wonder he lacked practice. Angels lacked free will and when demons had all the time in the world, there was no need to learn how to choose quickly.

It wasn't exactly a coincidence that the most sought-after whore in the town had looks close enough to Raizel's, in dim light. He always tried to refuse payment from Frankenstein because of the elixir, but Frankenstein preferred that he was well-off enough to refuse clients if they wanted to abuse someone who resembled his guest.

Pulling the young man's hair back, biting down on his neck and feeling the shudder, bending him back over the bed, feeling those legs wrapped around him… Imagining he had Raizel in his grasp took the edge off, at least.

The trouble was the sixth sense he'd given himself so he could sense the demons before they deigned to notice a mere human soul. At this point, it was used to Raizel. Found him… pleasant. For a year now he'd been sure to stay at arm's length away from Raizel, because his soul and powers wanted to… He'd rather not research if there was a spiritual equivalent to biting someone's neck, feeling that shudder of willing surrender.

No. He wanted to a little _too_ much. Barely feeling Raizel's aura just made it even more tantalizing.

* * *

Raizel was the first to notice the approaching students – he had finished setting up, and gone to tend to the plants on the side of the house that faced the road instead of the graveyard.

He went to get Frankenstein from his lab, and when Frankenstein sensed him standing nearby and looked up, he blinked, startled. "You look younger," he said, tone half curiosity, half interrogation. Frankenstein did not like anything that implied the young might be in danger.

Frowning, Raizel raised a hand to touch his face. "Use the mirror," Frankenstein told him, gesturing over that way.

Looking in the mirror, Raizel still wasn't quite sure what Frankenstein was talking about, and turned back to him.

"You look a little older again. Well, in your twenties, not your teens." Frankenstein frowned again. "You have no idea?"

Raizel shook his head.

"Perhaps you mimic those around you…"

That reminded Raizel. "The students are coming."

As loathe as Frankenstein was to stop once he'd found a problem to study, he nodded and began to close his desk, locking it. "Inform Tesamu, will you?"

Raizel nodded and left the lab.

He knocked on the door of Tesamu's room, instead of going in as he would with Frankenstein, because shouting from the door was noisy and he was not in danger if Frankenstein was startled and lashed out at him. Not that this had ever happened, but Frankenstein worried, even though he thought all nobles were his enemy. Raizel couldn't blame him, when only criminals wandered loose in the human world. The proper knights avoided humans and didn't trouble them.

"Why are you here?" Tesamu asked suspiciously, calling back through the door.

"Frankenstein wants you," Raizel said after a moment trying to figure out what was best to say. He'd only deliberated as long as it took to count three – one of Frankenstein's rules so he didn't rudely keep humans waiting too long. It was wrong to waste their time when they didn't have as much as they wanted.

The door opened, and Tesamu's eyes were red around the edges. Raizel could feel the lingering sadness in the room. He left Tesamu alone since the child did not like his presence and went to go make his favorite food for lunch. Dumplings would help the child feel better, Frankenstein said so.

* * *

Raizel was carefully stirring a boiling pot, watching the dumplings, vegetables and bubbles that came to the surface, when class let out for lunch. Watching pots was every bit as interesting as watching the window. And then there was soup. He hoped the Lord didn't summon him back to Lukedonia whenever he sent a clan leader to check that he wasn't lost. Raizel couldn't make soup there – there wasn't anyone in his manor to cook for, and that would be sad. He could make it when he had visitors, but he didn't have visitors every day.

He realized that he would have visitors most days until Frankenstein finished training his new students, and smiled softly. Shinwoo and Yuna had come to the town seeking safety, but Ikhan and Suyi and many of the other students had been born in the town. Humans grew up so fast!

"Take a bowl from the cupboard here," Frankenstein told the students as he opened it, "And line up, please – Raizel doesn't handle having to choose who to serve first very well. It's more pronounced in him than the demons I've fought, but none of them are good at making decisions quickly in a pinch. Perhaps a remnant of being created without free will."

Grateful and wishing he understood more of what Frankenstein was speaking about, Raizel began to carefully ladle soup into the bowls, unsurprised that Tesamu was at the front of the line. Shinwoo was smiling – had he held the others back for him? Ikhan was looking at Tesamu sympathetically – human perceptions were very acute for those who couldn't sense emotion. Did they know that Tesamu was upset? First he had to share the Professor he admired so with something he hated, and now all these other students.

Raizel hid his compassion carefully – Tesamu wouldn't like pity any more than Urokai did.

"Professor Frankenstein, is it okay to ask…" Yuna leaned towards the professor a little – Raizel could hear what she said, but ignored it.

"How _did_ you fall from heaven?" Frankenstein wondered, taking his own bowl last, once the younger ones – some of whom, including the massive town gatekeeper, looked older than him – were fed first.

Raizel looked at him, and Frankenstein explained, thankfully. "How did you come to leave the land of the Lord?"

"You summoned me," Raizel reminded him.

"The first time you left heaven."

"The Lord told me that there was a rumor of an object of power that fell from the sky among the humans. The knights he sent to investigate did not return, so I was sent."

"What of the time an angel forced you from the human world?"

Raizel sighed. "I could not find my way home after accomplishing the mission. The Lord sent Gejutel to bring me back."

"To heaven?"

Sometimes Frankenstein called Lukedonia 'the good place, the sky overhead' and sometimes 'place of punishment.' The nobles who resented being forced to Lukedonia considered it a place of punishment, and Frankenstein would have heard about it from the criminals and the knights he interrogated, which explained why he called it both 'home' and 'a place of exile.' "It is the Land of the Lord, Lukedonia."

Frankenstein frowned. "Is there another place where your kind lives?"

"All of us are to remain in Lukedonia, by order of the Lord. Unless we are given a mission in the human world, the only ones who leave are criminals and traitors." Raizel paused, thinking. "He will not mind that I am staying here." As Noblesse he was not bound by the Lord's Authority to begin with, but the Lord wanted him to get out and meet people. He poured himself a cup of soup.

"So you weren't ever banished from heaven?" Shinwoo asked him.

Banished? Raizel shook his head.

"I knew it," Shinwoo said smugly, folding his arms and nodding. "Told you we could have just asked. The Professor wouldn't let a demon do the shopping without someone keeping an eye on him."

"I didn't want to ask in case it was a bad memory for you," Yuna told him, a note of apology in her voice that Raizel didn't understand, but humans were often as incomprehensible as they were kind.

"Demons are supposed to teach worldly knowledge," Ikhan said, and Raizel knew he had very little of that, despite Frankenstein sitting him down sometimes and explaining about things. Like money, after the time he sent Raizel into town with a purse of coins and Raizel had to make several trips back with all the things people gave him before he had everything on the list Frankenstein made him memorize. Then when Frankenstein asked him how much he spent to get all those extra things he had to go back and give people money. They didn't want to take it and he didn't want them to do something against their will, so he was forced to return to Frankenstein. He was grateful that Frankenstein straightened it out, and from then on he was able to pay properly.

The memory made him sigh. It was very difficult to be elegant here, when he didn't know what the properly elegant way to go about so many things was.

"You are still loyal to the Lord?" Frankenstein asked him, brow creasing.

Raizel nodded. He was aware that Frankenstein thought he was one of the criminals, but it didn't see elegant to insist on his virtue. Especially when he wasn't entirely obedient to the Lord – on the matter of 'getting laid,' for example.

Then he frowned, turned to look off to the east, and looked at Frankenstein before removing the apron and hanging it up properly.

"Union?"

Raizel nodded.

"Tesamu, watch the house while we're gone," Frankenstein said, with a smile for his student.

* * *

Raizel sighed when Frankenstein provoked the young hunter into fighting him. The hunter might be one of those the Union tried to twist, like Tesamu, but he wasn't in need of judgment. He didn't see others as things.

The girl he thought was his sick sister, on the other hand…

* * *

When they returned to the house with Frankenstein carrying the tied-up hunter and one of the 'poor sick girl's' other bodyguards, the one that had watched from the trees instead of attacking them, Shinwoo was playing with MXXI in the field while the others watched.

Raizel hoped that Muzaka would come look for him soon. Muzaka should have the chance to fight with humans who honestly loves fighting, most of all for the chance to protect what was precious to them.

Seeing that tattoo and realizing that the Union had experimented on more than a thousand people had sent Frankenstein into a rage. It was the first time he had honored Raizel with the responsibility of watching over the town while Frankenstein went to judge those who betrayed humanity. The town and those who lived here were precious to Frankenstein.

* * *

"I think today went well. What do you think, Tesamu?"

"It was fine, Professor," Tesamu said bravely. "I'm just glad I could help." That was a little more honest.

"But Raizel, what is this about you being an angel?"

Angel? "I am not a messenger." He did not go places and tell people things – but then, he had gone to Frankenstein and was telling him this, so, perhaps? Maybe he was? "I stayed in the house the Lord made for me, and spoke with the clan leaders. And with the Lord, when he summoned me."

Frankenstein could see that he was unsure, and sighed, asking, "What am I going to do with you… Why didn't you say you weren't a fallen angel? No, never mind," he went on before Raizel could reply. "I know that you have the power to gain languages, but understand the nuances is difficult for you. I insisted that you were a fallen angel and you didn't want to contradict me. I wish you had earlier, now I don't know if _any_ of the research I did on you applies to my enemies."

Raizel looked contrite.

"Professor, are you really taking his word for it?"

"Tesamu, you've sat in on the interrogations of some of the demons I've captured. They're all greedy and hold humanity in contempt. Has Raizel ever acted anything like them? If anything, he's too humble and has no ambition but to serve. I shouldn't have let myself assume from the red eyes… perhaps the difference in the summoning was that I didn't intend to sell my soul." Frankenstein winced. "Are you certain that the Lord won't mind?"

Raizel shook his head. "He has often said that I should go and meet people."

That drew a thoughtful hmm from Frankenstein. "Well, that can be accomplished – Tesamu can observe you socializing with the students."

* * *

Raizel was very busy, living with Frankenstein. He could only watch the bread rise for so long, then he could only devote so much time to choosing his clothes for the day before he needed to put the bread in to bake, and then he would listen to the birds until Frankenstein and Tesamu finished feeding the birds and other animals and came in for breakfast. After serving breakfast and eating with them, he had the washing up to do, and starting the soup, and then it was time to take the horses for their run, and check their hooves and brush them until they shone elegantly afterwards.

By that time, the students had arrived, and the gatekeeper had them running and practicing blocks and strikes while Frankenstein and Tesamu both watched over a few pairs exchanging blows well away from the house. That meant it was time for Raizel to tend to the garden – Frankenstein had given him very thick clothing that was not his style, but he wore it over his regular clothing so that he did not get mud on it when he was weeding and planting and otherwise tending to the plants. Frankenstein mostly let him work unsupervised now – it had taken a few years before Frankenstein could let Raizel plan the meals and where to grow what when.

It made him proud to think that he had mastered this to Frankenstein's satisfaction. Frankenstein was a brilliant teacher. Raizel was sure he would teach all of them what they needed to pursue their wills to protect. Raizel blushed, remembering that when Frankenstein had called him he didn't even know what bread was, or that you ate it.

* * *

 _Raizel had been living with Frankenstein for more than twenty years by the time Tesamu arrived._

 _MXXI is roman numerals for a thousand twenty-one. Hellhound instead of werewolf, maybe?_


End file.
